2021.03.2521:10:00UTC+00Dollar Continues To Exhibit Strength Against Rivals

The U.S. dollar exhibited strength against most of its major counterparts on Thursday amid hopes the U.S. economy will see a much stronger than expected recovery.

Data from the Commerce Department showed that real gross domestic product surged up by 4.3% in the fourth quarter compared to the previously reported 4.1% jump. Economists had expected the pace of GDP growth to be unrevised.

Data from the Labor Department showed that U.S. weekly jobless claims slid to 684,000 in the week ended March 20, a decrease of 97,000 from the previous week's revised level of 781,000. Economists had expected jobless claims to decline to 730,000 from the 770,000 originally reported for the previous week.

The dollar index, which advanced to 92.92 was last seen at 92.85, up 0.35% from previous close.

Against the Euro, the dollar firmed up to $1.1765, rising 0.42% from Wednesday's close of $1.1815.

The Pound Sterling weakened against the dollar, fetching $1.3732 a unit, about 0.35% less from previous closing level.

The Yen weakened to 109.19 a dollar, sliding from 108.73.

The Aussie was down marginally with the AUD-USD pair at 0.7581.

The Swiss franc was weak against most of its counterparts after the Swiss National Bank left its policy rates unchanged. Against the dollar, the Swiss currency was down nearly 0.5% at CHF 0.9402. Policymakers of the Swiss National Bank retained the policy rate and interest on sight deposits at the SNB at -0.75%, as widely expected.

Despite the recent weakening, the bank repeated that the Swiss franc remains highly valued. The bank said it is willing to intervene in the foreign exchange market 'as necessary', while taking the overall currency situation into consideration.

The Loonie, at 1.2613 a dollar, was down by about 0.3%.